Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives

"Amelia Possanza tells the story of seven lesbians and their loves, including Mabel Hampton, co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives; Rusty Brown, a male impersonator who performed at Coney Island in the McCarthy era; and Gloria Anzaldúa, who refused to choose between her lesbian and Chicana identities. The stories are deeply researched and imaginatively told through a mix of historical record, primary sources, invented scenes and the author’s own wrestling with the meaning of what she finds. Possanza challenges the history we’re taught, one that codifies and reproduces heteronormativity. “Scholars … will construct arguments out of what little evidence remains, arguments that suit their needs, further their own careers. I have defiantly joined them, arguing for the lesbian ancestor I need.”"